Exterior Finish

I have had several calls asking for advice on what type of paint to use to decorate the outside of their dollhouse. So I thought I would share with you how I decorated one of my own houses with little cost. I wanted to have a textured finish so used some general purpose water based emulsion paint from my local DIY store and added some builder’s sand. (Sand only with no aggregate and washed thoroughly) I painted small test areas on a piece of card adding more sand to give me the the finish I was looking for. If you are looking to texture a small area and don’t have any water based paints laying around to use try the small match pots that are on offer in your local DIY stores. For around £1.50 you will be amazed how much you can cover with one of those pots, normally they are a thicker consistency and you can add a small amount of water to make them go a little further.

Have you taken a trip lately to the local pet centre, there you will find a range of gravels that are ideal for decorating the out side of a dollhouse if you want a stone finish. Some of the artificial pond and aquarium plants are also ideal for many a miniature project. Just let your imagination run away with itself and have fun.

I hope this may be of use sometime for one of your projects, after all even though I have a stock room full of miniatures I still get a real buzz out of saving money where ever I can.